Despite the end of their conference rivalry, Texas and Texas A&M still find ways to compete off the playing field. The latest battle between the two played out in the men’s basketball AP poll, in which Texas beat out Texas A&M for the last spot in the top-25.

Although Texas outranked Texas A&M for the 25th spot, this week’s AP poll marks the latest fall in the rankings for the Longhorns after their worst loss of the season — an 83–86 loss at Baylor on Saturday. Texas opened at No. 10 in the AP Poll in the preseason but has fallen sharply with three straight losses to conference opponents.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, Kansas moved up one spot to eight while Iowa State jumped four spots to 11.

Big 12/SEC Challenge moved

Conference play typically marks the beginning of a long and gruelling stretch without much a break. But next year, Big 12 teams will get a bit of a break in January to step outside of the rigorous conference schedule.

The Big 12 and SEC announced Thursday that their annual Big 12/SEC challenge will move from December, when it has been played in recent years, to Jan. 30 starting next season.

While the SEC boasts perennial powerhouse Kentucky and a top contender in Florida, the rest of the conference doesn’t quite match up to other top basketball conferences. That should give Big 12 teams the respite they need for the second half of conference play.

In this season’s tournament, Texas drew a challenging game at Kentucky against the Wildcats. But, given the overall talent level in the SEC, most teams should be able to pick up easy wins.

Matchups will be announced at a later date.

OU’s Spangler takes home Big 12 weekly award

The Big 12 named Oklahoma junior forward Ryan Spangler the Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday, after being a key factor in the Sooners’ wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech last week. Spangler posted a season-high 20 points in the 81–36 shellacking against the Red Raiders and followed it with 13 points against the Cowboys. He combined for a 78.6 shooting percentage and was 10-of-13 from the free throw line.

Big 12 names Cyclone guard conference newcomer of the week

Although he is relatively unknown among the nation, senior guard Bryce Dejean-Jones is starting to become a familiar name in the Big 12 — and to Texas. The Big 12 named Dejean-Jones Newcomer of the Week on Monday after averaging 17 points in the Cyclones’ wins over Texas and TCU last week. Dejean-Jones scored 18 points against the Longhorns before tallying 16 points against TCU. He also averaged a 77 percent field goal percentage in the two games.

Texas volleyball head coach Jerritt Elliott scheduled No. 6 Florida for the last regular season match to give the Longhorns one final challenge before the NCAA tournament.

Saturday afternoon, Elliott and the Longhorns found that challenge and more against the SEC champion Gators, capping off regular season play with their second loss.

Florida seemed to handle everything Texas threw at it: blocking, senior outside hitter Haley Eckerman on the service line and sophomore middle blocker Chiaka Ogbogu up the middle. Executing a dominant fifth set, the Gators overpowered the Longhorns.

“I think Florida played extremely well,” Elliott said. “We just weren’t very efficient from the start from the service line or serve receive line. We made mistakes late in the games, but I think it’s something we can learn from and grow from and keep moving.”

The dogfight kicked off from the start as neither side built a lead of more than 2 points until Texas took a 10-8 lead behind a kill from sophomore outside hitter Paulina Prieto Cerame and an attack error by Florida. The Gators later took a 22-19 lead before the Longhorns fought back with a 5-0 run.

“It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it was important to, obviously, win the first game and take control of the match,” Elliott said.

The second set, though, belonged to Florida. The Gators jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead and never looked back before stealing the set 25-20. In the set, the Longhorns were held to just a .125 hitting percentage — their lowest of the match.

The third set started as a role reversal of the second set, as Texas jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead. The Longhorns eventually found themselves with a 22-21 lead late in the set, but the Gators went on a 4-1 run to take the set 25-23.

Texas won the fourth set to keep the match alive but dropped a back-and-forth fifth set 15-12.

With the win, the Gators avenge their loss to the Longhorns earlier this season in Gainesville, Florida. Elliott said Florida — especially sophomore right side Alex Holston, who had 29 kills — was much improved this time around.

“I thought their defense was really good and their passing was exceptional,” Elliott said. “Their out-of-system game was just better, some of their pin hitters we couldn’t control.”

Texas has now lost two of its last three regular season finales. In 2012, Texas finished regular season play with a 3-2 loss at Iowa State and then went on to win the national championship.

Ogbogu said the loss will motivate the team in the tournament.

“I think, if anything, this is going to make us hungrier and realize that this year, anyone can win the national championship,” Ogbogu said.

The Longhorns received the No. 2 overall seed and the top in the Minneapolis Region in this year’s championship bracket. Texas will open against Northwestern State at home Thursday. The winner faces either Texas A&M or Arizona State on Friday.

The last time these two teams met, Chris Davis had his 15 minutes of fame after returning a missed Alabama field goal for a game-winning touchdown and helping Auburn leapfrog into the national title game. A year later, the stakes aren’t exactly the same, but the drama should be similar. Auburn has dropped off a bit with losses to Mississippi State and Georgia and then literally fumbling the game away against Texas A&M. Alabama, on the other hand, will be looking for revenge against the team that knocked it out of the national title game last year. Despite a close loss at Ole Miss, the Crimson Tide have run through the SEC West gauntlet and have put themselves in a position to get into the playoffs. These teams are headed in different directions, but this is the Iron Bowl, which is always must-watch television.

Mississippi State at Ole Miss

The stakes aren’t nearly as high as we thought they might be in October, but this should still be a great game between two rivals. Mississippi State still has a shot to make the top four for the playoffs, and a win over Ole Miss would be a big résumé builder. Bulldog junior quarterback Dak Prescott remains a Heisman candidate after throwing for 2,714 yards, 23 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this season. Ole Miss, on the other hand, is heading in the wrong direction after a promising start to the season. The Rebels knocked off Alabama but then lost to LSU, Auburn and Arkansas. Senior quarterback Bo Wallace has been less than stellar the past four games, with only five touchdown passes and four picks. Still, this game is in the national spotlight for the first time in quite some time and is well worth a watch.

Florida at Florida State

On the surface, this doesn’t seem like much of a matchup. Florida has seemingly dropped off the face of the college football landscape along with former head coach Will Muschamp, and Florida State has won 27 games in a row. But there are a lot of unknowns in this rivalry game. Florida could be inspired by its coach’s last game and come out like world beaters, similar to what it did to Georgia a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, Florida State has made a habit of struggling against lesser teams in the first half and barely pulling out a win at the very end. No, this isn’t the Gator-Seminole rivalry of old, but it’s suddenly all the rage to see if this is the week Florida State finally falls.

Georgia Tech at Georgia

This could be the most underrated rivalry matchup this week, which says a lot considering both teams come into the game ranked pretty high. Georgia Tech has quietly worked its way through a tough schedule and put an exclamation point on it with a 28-6 win over then-No. 19 Clemson. Meanwhile, Georgia has at times looked like a national championship contender, with wins over Missouri and Auburn, but looked mediocre in the loss to Florida. Still, the Bulldogs need this win to stay alive in the race for the SEC East title. At any rate, this is a game that deserves to be watched.

It was already a beautiful day: sunny, 70 degrees and a cool breeze after days of thunderstorms. College Station almost could have been nice. Except that it’s College Station.

On Sunday, Texas’ intramural flag football champions trekked to College Station for the second annual Lone Star Intramural Showdown, a matchup of the two rivals’ intramural powerhouses. As the two schools’ flag football teams faced off, it was clear this was far more than just another game of intramural football.

The Longhorns repped black Nike Dri-FIT shirts, bold burnt orange “WE’RE TEXAS” running across the shirts above a Longhorn decal. Their Aggie counterparts donned various maroon shirts, white writing bearing some indication of their own identities: Texas A&M, the Aggies. The 120-year-old rivalry still holds much clout. The intramural showdown captured that energy. If only SEC officials were there to see.

Following Texas’ 28-7 drubbing of Oklahoma State and subsequent ascent to bowl eligibility, rumors surfaced that Texas and Texas A&M might face each other in a Big 12-SEC bowl matchup, sending fans abuzz with excitement. But soon after, reports said the SEC shut it down. Chip Brown of Scout’s HornsDigest reported that the SEC officials said it’d be bad for recruiting.

According to Brown, two sources told HornsDigest.com that SEC officials will not arrange a Texas-Texas A&M bowl game should the opportunity arise. Although the conference places its teams in six of the postseason matchups, it appears not to focus on rivalry benefits or fan excitement. Instead, recruiting remains its main concern.

Mark Womack, SEC’s executive associate commissioner, said the conference hasn’t made a decision either way.

“It’s way too early at this point to start looking at what potential matchup in games could be,” FoxSports reported Womack saying in Wednesday’s SEC conference call. “The first thing we have to do is determine what is the pool of teams we have available after the College Football Playoff bowl games are filled. … It’s way too early to start talking about particular matchups and particular games.”

But other reports say the SEC won’t risk A&M’s recruiting pipeline by pitting it against a Texas team that has the potential to win. Texas officials, too, have shown scattered disinterest in playing the Aggies since A&M left for the SEC in 2012. But it’s time for the rivalry to resurface.

Texas abounds with traditions, many of which link directly to the rival Aggies. Monday night’s pre-Thanksgiving Hex Rally was initiated in 1941 to hex the College Station opponents, and the Texas fight song explicitly says, “goodbye to A&M.” Texas has maintained many of its traditions even without the rivalry. But it’s not the same, and a bowl-game rivalry would bring much of the excitement back to the Lone Star State’s athletics.

Sure, a UT-A&M bowl game matchup may have recruiting implications. But it’s just a single game, post-season, that might not even feature new play. College football hooks fans because of its school spirit and amateurism — what should be the last vestige of non-commercialized competitive sport.

And it’s time for the bowl game to revive the controversy and readdress which Texas public university truly dominates the college football landscape. Neither school is ranked nor playoff-eligible, and neither is even the best in Texas, thanks to Baylor and TCU.

During Sunday’s Lone Star Intramural Showdown, Kyle Field towered over the intramural turfs. Its prestige seems almost ironic as Texas’ coed and men’s squads executed 24-0 and 27-0 shutouts, respectively. Leaving the field, Longhorn competitors chanted the fight song and pronounced “goodbye to A&M” with extra clarity. A white decal on the maroon stadium sign visible from the turf said “Welcome to Aggieland, Home of the 12th man.”

Aggieland, it appears, is ready to welcome home the Longhorns. Texas players are ready to meet their longtime foe. And the SEC should let the opportunity happen.

Yelling and being frustrated at college football rankings is a tradition as old as the sport itself.

People love to say how much a particular poll is off in judging a team or just how wrong a ranking is — see the BCS, for example.

But with the next round of the College Football Playoff rankings coming out Tuesday night, and especially after what happened last week, it would be wise for folks to take some advice from Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers quarterback, and just “relax.”

The rankings that come out Tuesday are not the final rankings. Nor are next week’s or even the week after’s. There are four weeks remaining in the regular season, and, if we haven’t already learned this by now, this is still a very fluid situation.

Last week, the two biggest issues that people had were with TCU being fourth while Baylor was behind in seventh — even though the Bears beat the Horned Frogs by 3 points last month — and Florida State dropping to third behind Oregon despite still being undefeated.

This week, the likely issues will be whether Ohio State deserves to be in the coveted fourth spot, whether Mississippi State should stay in the top four — also opening up the debate of whether the SEC should get two teams in the playoffs — and whether TCU should still have a higher ranking than Baylor. But no matter what the Week 13 rankings reveal, there shouldn’t be a loud uproar over these issues, at least not yet.

The issue of whether Ohio State, and the Big 10 by virtue, should be in the playoffs will likely work itself out on the field. Any of the teams ahead of the Buckeyes could easily still lose. Alabama still has to play Auburn; Oregon will likely face off against a pesky Arizona State team; Florida State still looks vulnerable; and Baylor and TCU each have a losable game. So regardless of the Buckeyes’ ranking, folks in Columbus should be patient.

The same can be said for Mississippi State fans. The Bulldogs have a potential loss against Ole Miss coming up but could also make the SEC title game if Alabama were to lose. That, combined with the likelihood that the SEC probably won’t get two teams because of the parity, should calm people both in and out of Starkville, Mississippi, until the last rankings come out.

Finally, the Baylor-TCU debate will likely continue until the end of the season, but Baylor fans would be better off waiting until after the Kansas State game on Dec. 6 before making their argument, as Baylor could easily lose that game. Also, TCU could lose to Texas before that game even happens. A win in that game, though, would equal the résumés, which the committee has said would bring about the head-to-head tie breaker, which the Bears own.

But the point is that there’s no need to be fuming after the rankings are released. Yes, it’s okay to disagree with them, but it’s pointless to lose sleep over the order of the teams before it’s final.

The wild West division of the SEC, which has been incredibly unpredictable this season, has arguably its biggest game of the season this weekend, with what might end up being the de facto division championship game. Mississippi State has had a dream season so far, going 9-0 and posting three straight wins against then-ranked opponents, the biggest being a 38-23 win over then-No. 2 Auburn. Junior Heisman hopeful Dak Prescott has led the way for the Bulldogs with 2,231 passing yards, 18 passing touchdowns and another 11 on the ground. But Alabama, despite not being the same as the team that won back-to-back titles, has managed to hang around in the top ten in the rankings. Senior quarterback Blake Sims has been steady overall with 2,243 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and just three interceptions. The winner will have the inside track to get into the SEC title game and be the conference’s representative in the playoffs.

No. 16 Nebraska at No. 20 Wisconsin

Camp Randall Stadium

Madison, Wisconsin

Saturday, 2:30 p.m.

ABC

To say the Big Ten has flown under the radar this season would be an understatement. The conference has had only one real showcase game, which came last week when Ohio State dismantled Michigan State and possibly cost the conference a spot in the playoffs. But Nebraska and Wisconsin have quietly worked their way into the middle of the rankings and will square off in the most underrated game of the weekend. Nebraska has put together a pretty solid season, aside from a five-point loss to Michigan State. Wisconsin has had a similar year, with a loss to LSU to start the season and a bad loss at Northwestern. This should be an interesting game, pitting the Cornhuskers’ 10th-ranked scoring offense against the Badgers’ third-ranked
scoring defense.

No. 9 Auburn at No. 15 Georgia

Sanford Stadium

Athens, Georgia

Saturday, 6:15 p.m.

ESPN

At one point, this appeared to be a preview of the SEC title game. Auburn was poised to find a way to survive the brutal West division, and Georgia was head and shoulders above the rest of the East. But, after a couple tough losses, there’s a very real chance neither team will make it into the conference championship game. The Tigers could not hang on to the ball to save their playoff lives late last week against Texas A&M, in another cataclysmic upset in the SEC West. Georgia, without suspended junior running back Todd Gurley, has struggled, most notably falling to Florida two weeks ago. The Bulldogs need to win this game to have a shot at making the SEC title game, and, although both teams are out of the national championship hunt, there’s still a lot to play for in this one.

No. 23 Utah at Stanford

Stanford Stadium

Stanford, California

Saturday, 5:00 p.m.

Pac-12 Network

When Utah joined the Pac-12, there was wonder as to whether the “mid-major” could hang with the top teams in a “big-boy conference,” but, while they’re not at the summit of the Pac-12, they are surviving and have found themselves with a respectable ranking. The Utes have only one bad loss — a one-point defeat to Washington State — and one has to wonder how they would have fared against Oregon had senior receiver Kaelin Clay not dropped the ball en route to a touchdown, letting Oregon score instead. Stanford, on the other hand, has had a down year by its standards, dropping to a 5-4 record a year after getting to the Rose Bowl. Although it’s far from a “sexy” matchup — this game doesn’t have any major playoff or conference championship ramification — the game should be close all the way to the end.

It appeared the defending champions were poised to fall Saturday. On fourth and goal at the Florida State 2-yard line, Everett Golson, Notre Dame’s senior quarterback, found sophomore wide receiver Corey Robinson for the go-ahead touchdown strike with 13 ticks on the clock.

Perhaps he was too open because the officials called an offensive pass interference on junior wide receiver C.J. Prosise, which moved the ball back 15 yards and forced the Irish to replay the down. Golson threw an interception in the end zone on the subsequent play, and the Seminoles survived 31-27 to extend their winning streak to 23 games.

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly did not agree with the official’s call after the game.

“We execute that play every day,” Kelly said “And we do it legally, and that’s the way we coach it. We don’t coach illegal plays.”

This win keeps the Seminoles right in the hunt for a spot in the College Football Playoff and was their best chance of being knocked off in the regular season.

Top-heavy SEC

The SEC continues to dominate the college football world and now lays claim to four teams in the top five of this week’s AP poll. Mississippi State remains at No. 1, and Ole Miss is still No. 3, but Alabama experienced some movement. The Alabama Crimson Tide moved up from No. 7 to No. 4 following their 59-0 rout of Texas A&M, while the Auburn Tigers moved up a spot to No. 5 after a couple of higher ranked teams lost.

All four of the SEC teams in the top five hail from the SEC West. Meanwhile, Georgia checks in at No. 9 this week, while LSU is back in the top 25 at No. 24. As dominant as the top of the SEC is, the bottom of the conference has been struggling.

Despite Georgia routing them at home last weekend 34-0, the Missouri Tigers bounced back to pulverize the Florida Gators, 42-13. With just under six minutes to play in the third quarter, the Tigers led 42-0 despite having less than 100 yards of total offense to that point.

Wide-open Big 12

West Virginia knocked off then No. 4 Baylor in Morgantown, West Virginia, 41-27, and climbed back into the top 25 at No. 22. The Mountaineers now control their own destiny in the conference title race and will host the two most difficult games left on their schedule.

TCU climbed to No. 10 in the AP poll this week after shellacking then No. 15 Oklahoma State, 42-9. The Horned Frogs bounced back after blowing a three-score lead to No. 5 Baylor a week ago.

The conference’s lone unbeaten team in conference play is No. 11 Kansas State, which defeated then No. 11 Oklahoma, 31-30, in Norman, Oklahoma, on Saturday. Usually reliable Sooner placekicker Michael Hunnicutt had a rough afternoon, converting only 1-of-3 field goal attempts.

Hunnicutt missed the go-ahead attempt from 19 yards out with under four minutes to play. Kansas State also blocked a PAT attempt that would have tied the game at 31.

Despite both the Fighting Irish and Seminoles’ storied football history, this is only the 10th ever meeting between the two teams. History, both distant and recent, heavily favors Florida State, with the Seminoles holding a 7-2 all-time lead in the series and coming into the game on a 22-game streak. But Notre Dame has been one of the quietest undefeated teams in some time. Senior quarterback Everett Golson has come back from his academic suspension on a mission, amassing 1,683 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and just four interceptions this year, and the Fighting Irish are eighth in scoring defense, giving up just 17.2 points per game. Meanwhile, defendng champion Florida State has been struggling, barely surviving upset bids from Clemson and North Carolina State. Sophomore quarterback Jameis Winston, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, has not had a great year, throwing just 11 touchdown passes and five interceptions. Still, both teams are undefeated, and this game could determine who gets a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff.

No. 14 Kansas State at No. 11 Oklahoma

Memorial Stadium, Norman, Oklahoma

Saturday, 11:00 a.m.

ESPN

While the SEC West seems to dominate the headlines, the Big 12 has produced back-to-back weeks chock-full of solid matchups, and this one continues that trend. As always under Bill Snyder, the Wildcats have quietly put together a solid team that should contend for the Big 12 title or, at the very least, make a lot of noise. Kansas State nearly pulled off a big Thursday night upset over Auburn a few weeks ago and are led by senior quarterback Jake Waters, who’s thrown for 1,206 yards and seven touchdowns and has run for six more scores, and senior receiver Tyler Lockett, who has three receiving touchdowns. On the other side, the Sooners hope to continue their bounce-back efforts after losing to TCU a couple weeks ago. Oklahoma will need a much better effort from sophomore quarterback Trevor Knight, who’s thrown for just 438 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in the past two games. This will be the best early game Saturday, with the winner being in a great position to take the Big 12 crown if Baylor ever goes down.

No. 15 Oklahoma State at No. 12 TCU

Amon G. Carter Stadium, Ft. Worth, Texas

Saturday, 3:00 p.m.

Fox Sports 1

The Big 12 slate continues with Oklahoma State and TCU squaring off in a similar situation to the Kansas State-Oklahoma matchup. OSU has rebounded well, winning five straight game, after losing the season opener to Florida State, but this will be the Cowboys’ biggest test since that loss. Junior quarterback Daxx Garman has played well since J.W. Walsh went down with an injury, but the Cowboys have struggled, beating Kansas by just seven points last week. TCU, on the other hand, looks to rebound after blowing a 21-point lead against Baylor last week. The Horned Frogs, led by a defense that was allowing just 13.5 points per game before the Baylor game, have been the surprise team in the conference as junior quarterback Trevone Boykin has shown the potential to be another one of the talented quarterbacks in the Big 12. The winner of this game, as in the Kansas State-Oklahoma matchup, will be in a great position to capture the Big 12 title if Baylor slips up.

No. 21 Texas A&M at No. 7 Alabama

Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Saturday, 2:30 p.m.

CBS

No, this game is unlikely to impact who will win the SEC West considering both teams have lost to Ole Miss. But it could determine how the rest of the season will go for both teams. Texas A&M is coming off of back-to-back losses to Ole Miss and Mississippi State, and the vaunted defense that held South Carolina to only 28 points in the opener has been exposed, conceding 48 and 35 points in each of the past two games. Sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill has struggled in the past two weeks, throwing five interceptions. Alabama has also struggled the past two weeks, losing to Ole Miss for the first time since 2003 and barely holding off Arkansas by a point. The main struggles for the Crimson Tide have come from senior quarterback Blake Sims, who has completed only 58 percent of his passes in the past two games and has thrown only two touchdown passes. No, this game may not have any College Football Playoff or SEC West implications. but the loser of this one will have a long way to go to stay afloat in such a difficult division.

It could very well be that the state of Mississippi boasts the two best college football teams in the country.

Fresh off its dominating 38-23 victory over Auburn, Mississippi State is ranked No. 1 for the first time in program history. The Bulldogs also became the fastest team to climb from unranked to No. 1 in the history of the Associated Press poll, accomplishing the feat in five weeks. They are the fifth team ever to defeat three top-10 teams in three consecutive weeks.

Their rivals in Oxford, Mississippi, are sitting pretty as well. Ole Miss routed Texas A&M in College Station, 35-20, on Saturday. The Rebels are now ranked No. 3 in both the AP and coaches polls, their highest ranking since 1964.

The road only gets harder for Mississippi State — the team must travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Nov. 15 to play the Crimson Tide. It also finishes the season on the road against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. Ole Miss hosts the Auburn Tigers in a few weeks, but the Tigers are the only ranked opponent left on Ole Miss’ schedule until the aforementioned Mississippi State matchup.

Plenty will happen between now and the end of the season for both programs, but, if the teams enter the end-of-season matchup unscathed, they could very well find themselves in the College Football Playoff.

Big 12, SEC dominate top 15:

The Big 12 and the SEC each landed five teams in the top 15 of the polls. The Big 12 is led by Baylor, which ranks fourth in both polls after a thrilling 61-58 victory over then-No. 9 TCU. Oklahoma comes in at No. 11 while TCU drops to No. 12. Kansas State and Oklahoma State round out the top 15 at Nos. 14 and
15, respectively.

The SEC, led by the aforementioned Bulldogs and Rebels, has three more teams in the top 10 this week. Auburn moved down to No. 6 in the AP poll, and Alabama and Georgia are ranked Nos. 7 and 10, respectively.

Special teams cost Arizona:

Fresh off an upset win at Oregon, Arizona controlled its own destiny in the Pac-12 South race. The Wildcats jumped from unranked to No. 10 after the win, their highest ranking since 2010.

They had a chance to remain perfect after rallying to bring their score to within a field goal of USC this past weekend. But Arizona junior placekicker Casey Skowron, who had been struggling all night, missed a 36-yard field-goal that would have put the Wildcats ahead in the waning seconds. Arizona fell, 28-26, and Skowron finished the night having converted only two of his five field goal attempts.

Aggies set attendance record in loss:

A crowd of 110,633 people attended Ole Miss’ 35-20 drubbing of Texas A&M on Saturday. It was the largest ever football crowd in the state of Texas and the SEC. It didn’t help much, however, as the Aggies fell behind 21-0 at halftime and trailed 35-7 after three quarters before eventually falling 35-20.

The big games just keep on coming in the SEC West. Auburn was the only one of the favorites in the conference to avoid an upset last weekend and now sit atop the conference. Senior quarterback Nick Marshall has done just enough to keep the Tigers undefeated with a 57.9 percent completion percentage and 8 passing touchdowns in addition to 392 rushing yards and four scores on the ground. But Mississippi State comes in riding the momentum of a big win over Texas A&M, thanks in large part to junior quarterback Dak Prescott. This season, Prescott has thrown for 1,223 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 455 rushing yards and six touchdowns. With both teams currently undefeated, this could be the game that decides who represents the division in the SEC Championship Game.

No. 9 TCU at No. 5 Baylor

McLane Stadium, Waco, Texas

Saturday, 2:30 PM

ABC

Given how their first two seasons in the Big 12 went, it’s quite a surprise to see the Horned Frogs finally finding their sea legs. TCU put the conference on notice Saturday with a big home upset of Oklahoma, putting its name in the hat as a contender for the Big 12 title. The Horned Frogs have benefitted from a strong year so far from junior quarterback Trevone Boykin, who has thrown for 1,176 yards and 10 touchdowns and rushed for three more scores. But TCU is going into McLane Stadium and facing a Baylor team that’s looking to win back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 1915-16 — when it was in the Southwest Conference. While senior quarterback Bryce Petty isn’t on the same pace he was a year ago, the Bears have gotten a big help from their rushing attack — with 247.4 rushing yards per game — and their defense — allowing just 12.4 points per game. As we saw last week, no one in college football is safe and this game could go a long way in determining who wins the Big 12 this year.

No. 3 Ole Miss at No. 14 Texas A&M

Kyle Field, College Station, Texas

Saturday, 8:00 PM

ESPN

Last week changed the perceptions of both teams and how people see them finishing in the SEC West. Ole Miss pulled off arguably the biggest victory in program history with a 23-17 win over Alabama at home Saturday. Senior quarterback Bo Wallace is having a strong year with 1,522 passing yards and 14 touchdowns, but the defense has been the biggest factor, holding opponents to only 10.2 points per game. Texas A&M, on the other hand, struggled on both sides of the ball in the loss to Mississippi State. Sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill threw three interceptions and the Aggie defense allowed the Bulldogs to accumulate 559 total yards. With the SEC West still wide open, this will be a pivotal game for both teams.

No. 13 Georgia at No. 23 Missouri

Farout Field, Columbia, Missouri

Saturday, 11:00 AM

CBS

For as good as the SEC West has been, the SEC East has been mediocre. Each team in the division has a loss, some of them pretty bad losses at that. But, while Georgia has a conference loss and Missouri is undefeated in SEC play, this game will likely determine the division winner. Georgia, aside from the loss to South Carolina, has been led by junior running back Todd Gurley. Gurley has put together a strong Heisman campaign so far, with 773 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. But Missouri’s sophomore quarterback Maty Mauk has proven that last year was no fluke with 1,110 passing yards and 14 touchdowns already this season. With the SEC East on the line, this will be the game to watch Saturday morning.